ICMA, along with the other national organizations representing state and local officials, has written to House and Senate Appropriation members to urge them to support robust budgets for the FY 2017 and FY 2018 planning process for the 2020 Census. So far, Congress has indicated that the cost of the 2020 census count may not exceed what was spent in 2010. The funding issue is complicated by an effort at the Census Bureau to test a new electronic data collection system and the announcement by the U.S. Census Director John H. Thompson that he is resigning effective June 30. Funding for the comprehensive American Community Survey (ACS) is also at risk. ICMA Executive Director Marc Ott and his colleagues wrote in their letter of support for the Census that: “State and local policymakers rely on both the Constitutionally required decennial census and the annual ACS to provide detailed, high-quality data. Insufficient funding would degrade this irreplaceable statistical information that state and local leaders need to make informed decisions for their citizens and communities.”